CONWAY -
The Coastal Carolina men’s basketball team opens up Big South Conference play Wednesday night at preseason favorite Charleston Southern. Coastal has won nine of its last 11 Big South openers while the Buccaneers are just 11-17 all-time in conference openers.

Coastal Falls in Regular Season Finale
Senior guard Anthony Raffa and sophomore guard Warren Gillis led all scorers with 23 and 19 points, respectively, but it was not enough to overcome the sharp-shooting Buccaneers of Charleston Southern University at home. The Bucs used 15 3-pointers to take a 75-64 victory over the Chants inside the CSU Field House.

Coastal Carolina Versus Charleston Southern• Coastal Carolina and Charleston Southern have met 63 times on the basketball court. • Coastal holds the series lead 33-30 and has won seven of the last eight meetings. • The Buccaneers won the most recent meeting 75-64 in Charleston on March 2, 2013.• The Chants are 17-12 when playing at Charleston Southern.

Chanticleers In Big South Openers• Coastal Carolina is 22-6 all-time in Big South Conference openers including 5-1 under the direction of head coach Cliff Ellis. • CCU’s 22-6 conference opener record is tops among the big South with UNC Asheville sitting in second at 21-7. • The Chants are facing the Buccaneers who hold a 11-17 all-time Big South Conference opener record. • Coastal’s lone conference opening loss under coach Ellis came Dec. 3, 2008 at home as the Chants fell 56-53 in overtime to Presbyterian. • CCU has won nine of its last 11 Big South openers.

Starting Five• The Chants have used five different starting line-ups this season with varying levels of success. • Only Michel Enanga and Elijah Wilson have been on every starting lineup. • CCU’s best starting five are Gillis, Cameron, Wilson, Enanga and Ndieguene who are 4-1 when starting together this season. • CCU’s opening day lineup of Gillis, Smith, Wilson, Enanga and Ljeskovic lasted just one game while the next game’s lineup lasted just a game as well with Smith, Wilson, Enanga, Ljeskovic and Curtis comprising that starting five. • The starting five of Gillis, Smith, Wilson, Enanga and Ndieguene lasted five games with a 1-4 record. • CCU’s most recent starting five is Gillis, Cameron, Wilson, Enanga and Curtis. They have played just two games as a starting five and carry a 1-1 record.

Cameron Arrives• Junior Josh Cameron has started the last seven games, the first seven starts of his career, and has not disappointed. • Cameron is averaging a team-high 16.1 points per game over the last seven outings. He is shooting 43.2 percent from the field and is 18-41 from 3-point range. He also has a team-high 25 assists over that span. • In CCU’s win on the road at Central Connecticut he hit a four-point play with 22 seconds left on the clock which turned out to be the game-winner as the Chants defeated CCSU, 65-62.

Freshmen Phenoms• This year’s freshmen class throughout the NCAA was one of the most talked about groups in recent history including Andrew Wiggins, Wayne Selden and Joel Embiid of Kansas, Jabari Parker of Duke, Julius Randle, James Young and the Harrison twins of Kentucky, Aaron Gordon of Arizona, Tyler Ennis of Syracuse and Kasey Hill of Florida. • Despite not being one of those “talked about” freshmen, Elijah Wilson currently ranks 13th in the NCAA in scoring among freshmen with his 15.5 points per game. Among the 11 freshmen listed above only Parker, Randle and Wiggins rank ahead of Wilson on the scoring list. • Three of the top-13 freshmen scorers in the NCAA come out of the Big South Conference including #3 QJ Peterson, VMI (19.8 ppg.), #8 Andrew Rowsey, UNCA (16.4 ppg.) and #13 Elijah Wilson, CCU (15.5 ppg.).

Hot Start• Freshman Elijah Wilson opened his career with 12-straight games scoring in double-figures. • He opened the season with 15 points at Akron. He then scored 16 against Guilford, 14 versus Ole Miss, a career-high 25 at Minnesota, 10 against St. Francis Brooklyn, 22 versus Louisiana, 16 at Clemson, 23 versus Western Carolina, 11 against North Carolina Wesleyan, 16 versus Reinhardt, 10 against SC State and 14 at Central Connecticut. • He has now scored in double-figures in 13 of the 14 games this season. • He is currently on track to break the freshman scoring record at CCU by 60 points set by Jack Leasure during the 2004-05 season. • If he continues at his current pace he will score 465 points during the regular season and with at least one postseason game he will bump that total to 480 which will break Leasure’s record of 420.71 which will break Leasure’s record of 420.